Category Archives: Countries

Animal Breeding / ASSP / Australia / Cattle / Dairying / East Africa / Ethiopia / Genetics / ILRI / ILRIComms / Indigenous Breeds / Kenya / LIVESTOCKFISH / Project / Tanzania / Uganda

Gates Foundation awards grant to improve dairy cattle breeds and reduce poverty in East Africa

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Staff of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) visited a field site of the Dairy Genetics East Africa (DGEA) project in June 2011 (photo credit: BMGF/Lee Klejtnot). The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded a USD1.3-million grant to researchers at the School of Environmental and Rural Science at the University of New England (UNE),  in Australia, … Continue reading →

Animal Feeding / Crop residues / Crop-Livestock / FFD / ILRIComms / India / Intensification / LIVESTOCKFISH / MAIZECRP / South Asia / Trade

Underused maize stover could (should) replace popular sorghum stover as livestock feed in parts of rainfed India

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Maize harvest in the village home of Jashvir Singh Tomar, in northern India, which ILRI scientists visited during a field day held as part of a workshop to develop a tool for feed technology screening and prioritization in Dehradun, India (photo credit: ILRI/Peter Ballantyne). New research by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the the International … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Production / Event / Kenya / Livestock

Africa’s animal agriculture focus of All Africa livestock conference

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Nairobi, 27-30 October 2014 hosts the 6th All Africa Conference on Animal Agriculture. The theme of the conference, ‘Africa’s Animal Agriculture: Macro-trends and future opportunities’ will be addressed in several sessions: Future of smallholder livestock systems in Africa Market access: domestic and regional trade for livestock and their products Market access: high value international markets … Continue reading →

Award / Dairying / ILRI / ILRIComms / India / Markets / Pro-Poor Livestock / South Asia / Women

‘Milk: Symbol of a free India’–16-year-old wins award in Commonwealth Society essay competition

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Nirja Bhatt, a silver medal winner in the 2013 Royal Commonwealth Society Essay Competition (photo credit: Purvi Mehta-Bhatt). Nirja Bhatt, a 16-year-old student at Navrachana International School Vadodara, in Gujurat, India, has won a Silver Award in the ‘senior’ category of this year’s Royal Commonwealth Society Essay Competition. This year’s topic, ‘Opportunity through Enterprise’, received more … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Animal Production / Asia / Buffalo / Crop residues / Crop-Livestock / Farming Systems / Humid Tropics / HUMIDTROPICS / Livelihoods / PIL / Southeast Asia / Vietnam

Is there an integrative role for livestock in agricultural systems? Positive insights from Vietnam

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I have just come back from Sapa, Vietnam, where I helped facilitate the launch meeting for the situational analysis of the CGIAR Humidtropics Research Program in northwest Vietnam. After the meeting, and to get a better idea of the situation of the farming systems we will be studying with our local research and development partners, I … Continue reading →

Agri-Health / Animal Diseases / Animal Health / Disease Control / East Africa / Ethiopia / Food Security / ILRIComms / Insurance / Kenya / Pastoralism / Presentation / Scaling

Scaling up quality agro-vet livestock services with SIDAI. ‘Livestock live talk’ at ILRI, 5 September 2013

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Livestock farmers in Africa struggle to access good quality inputs, effective knowledge and fair markets. Regulation of the livestock input sector is very weak in Kenya, allowing unqualified people to open shops selling veterinary pharmaceuticals; many of which are counterfeit or under-strength. This leads to extensive misuse of drugs through poor diagnosis and administration of products. … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Animal Production / CGIAR / Environment / Farming Systems / Gender / Humid Tropics / HUMIDTROPICS / Innovation Systems / Livelihoods / PIL / Southeast Asia / Vietnam

Northwest Vietnam situational analysis shapes up for CGIAR Humidtropics Research Program

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On 15 and 16 August 2013 the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) organized the launch meeting for situational analysis work in northwest Vietnam of the CGIAR Humidtropics research program. Jo Cadilhon represented the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in the meeting and helped facilitate the process. He reports on the outcomes. Humidtropics aims to help poor farm families, … Continue reading →

Animal Diseases / Animal Production / ASF / CBPP / Epidemiology / Livestock / Nigeria / PIM / PPR / Trypanosomiasis / West Africa

Estimating the financial costs of animal disease burden, morbidity and mortality in Nigeria

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Nigeria’s agriculture sector generates one-third of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs two-thirds of the workforce. Its recent growth dominates Nigerian non-oil economic growth. Small-scale, semi-commercial farms, settled agricultural households and transhumant pastoralists dominate production. Livestock is the second largest agricultural subsector and features 16.43 million cattle, 34.69 million sheep, 55.15 million goats, 7.18 … Continue reading →

Cattle / Forages / Goats / ILRIComms / India / Intensification / Pro-Poor Livestock / South Asia / Vulnerability

Nepal’s livestock sector: In demand and in decline?

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Livestock fodder on road between Chitwan District and Pokhara, Nepal. An ILRI-CSISA (Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia) project on the Indo-Gangetic Plains of Chitwan District, in south-central Nepal, began in Sep 2010. Project staff are introducing residue-based feeding strategies supplemented with green fodder and concentrates to increase cattle and buffalo milk production (photo credit: ILRI/Susan … Continue reading →

Drought / Drylands / East Africa / Geodata / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Pastoralism / PIL / Vulnerability

Livestock keepers in Kenya’s northern Isiolo District to get livestock-drought insurance for first time

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Livestock farmers and herders in Kenya’s northern Isiolo District will soon be able to insure their animals against drought using an index-based insurance product (photo credit:  Raimond Duijsens/NLRC). Three institutions have agreed to a Sh1.15-billion deal to reduce the effects of drought on pastoralists in Isiolo, in northern Kenya, where livestock farmers and herders have … Continue reading →